OUTPUTS OF THE CONGRESS

   Protected Areas Categories Review

"Speaking a common language -
an assessment of the ways in which the IUCN protected area management categories can be used to further conservation
action on the ground"

A Partnership of:

Speaking a Common Language: Objectives
Project Outputs
Information Sheets
Background Papers
Contacts
To know more

Protected areas represent a huge international investment in environmental care: there are now more than 40,000 such places in the world, their numbers are growing and they occur in nearly every country. To help guide this dynamic trend, IUCN - the World Conservation Union has - since 1994 - advocated a global system of classifying protected areas by their objectives. This system is potentially the key to promoting international understanding about protected areas, prioritising action and raising the standards of their management.

The Speaking a Common Language project is being carried out jointly by Cardiff University and Equilibrium, working with IUCN and the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre. The objectives of the project are to establish the impact and effectiveness of the 1994 IUCN Protected Area Categories, and previous incarnations, in terms of the adoption and influence of the categories system, nationally, regionally and internationally and examine what needs to be done to develop and promote the system.

The initial results and draft recommendations of the project will be presented at a workshop during the World Parks Congress (within workshop stream 5: Maintaining protected areas for now and the future). The project team hopes that those attending the congress will add their considerable knowledge and experience of protected area management and practical application of the IUCN categories to help shape the final version of the project's report. Thereafter, recommendations will be made to IUCN itself (and especially WCPA) and to the CBD/COP 7. The results will be of value to all those involved in conservation and sustainable development at the international and national levels, as well as to many other branches of government, and to business, industry and other land users.

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Speaking a Common Language : Objectives

"Speaking a Common Language" is a research project to assess the ways in which the IUCN protected area management categories can be used to further conservation action on the ground.

The objectives of the project are to:

	Establish the impact and effectiveness of the 1994 IUCN guidance, and previous incarnations, in terms of the adoption and influence of the categories system, nationally, regionally and internationally;
	Examine what needs to be done to develop and promote the objectives-based system of protected area categories itself, and consider how it should be linked to other initiatives in protected area planning and management;
	Involve a wide range of stakeholders in the work, notably through the World Parks Congress (Durban, South Africa, September 2003) and other related events;
	Guide the programme of work on protected areas of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD); and
	To provide technical advice on the Category System to a proposed programme of work on protected areas for IUCN.

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Project Outputs

The project is being carried out jointly by Cardiff University (Kevin Bishop and Adrian Phillips) and Equilibrium (Nigel Dudley and Sue Stolton) in partnership with IUCN (The World Conservation Union) and its World Commission on Protected Areas and the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre.

The project outputs will provide a review of progress of the implementation of the IUCN protected area management categories system, leading to the recommendations for the system's refinement and development. In particular, this should lead to:

	Better appreciation of the significance of the objectives-based categories system;
	Improved understanding of the impact of the system;
	Critical appreciation of the successes and difficulties encountered in its application;
	Advice on capacity building to improve application of the system, particularly at the national and sub-national level; and
	Recommendations to IUCN and the international conservation community on the further development of the system.

Funding for the research has come from IUCN, Conservation International and Shell International Ltd. but the research is independent and the results will be published through a series of working reports and scientific papers.

The research programme commenced in May 2002 and will run (subject to funding) for a period of two years. Reports will be made to the World Parks Congress (Durban, September 2003) and the CBD/COP 7 (Conference of the Parties to the CBD).

Copies of the research work programme (revised April 2003) can be downloaded here.

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Information Sheets

The following information sheets provide additional information on certain aspects of the project :

	Information Sheet 1: The Objectives of the Speaking a Common Language Project
	Information Sheet 2: Questions and Answers about the Speaking a Common Language Project
	Information Sheet 3: The IUCN Protected Area Management Categories
	Information Sheet 4: A Short History of the Categorisation of Protected Areas
	Information Sheet 5: Other Research Projects Related to IUCN Protected Area Management Categories

If you have experience of the protected area management categories and would like to contribute the research please complete the Sharing a Common Language Questionnaire (available as Word 97 or PDF) and email it to:: protectedareas@cardiff.ac.uk

To assist us with the research we have established a Steering Group which currently comprises of representatives from: IUCN, UNEP WCMC, Shell International Ltd., BP PLC and Conservation International.

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Background Papers and Case Studies

A series of background papers and case studies have been developed during the research phase of the project. Drafts of these outputs can be downloaded from the links below.

Iif you would like to comment on these papers please email us at: protectedareas@cardiff.ac.uk

	Background Paper: An Assessment of the Application of the IUCN System of Categorising Protected Areas
	Case Study 1: Use of the IUCN Protected Area Management Categories in regional criteria and indicator processes for sustainable forest management
	Case Study 2: Using the IUCN Protected Area Management Categories to measure forest protected areas in the UNECE/FAO Temperate and Boreal Forest Resource Assessment
	Case Study 3: Standardising names of protected areas
	Case Study 4: Certification of good forest management and its relationship to protected areas
	Case Study 5: Applying the IUCN categories to large multiple use protected areas
	Case Study 6: Applying the categories in Vietnam
	Case Study 7: Developing self-declared Indigenous Protected Areas in Australia
	Case Study 8: How the IUCN Protected Area Management Categories can support the needs and rights of Traditional and Indigenous Peoples in Protected Areas

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Output Leader

The project is being carried out jointly by Cardiff University (Kevin Bishop and Adrian Phillips) and Equilibrium (Nigel Dudley and Sue Stolton) in partnership with IUCN (The World Conservation Union) and its World Commission on Protected Areas and the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre.

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To know more

Cardiff University - http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/cplan/sacl/#top
Equilibrium Consultants - http://www.equilibriumconsultants.com/
UNEP-WCMC - http://www.unep-wcmc.org/
IUCN - The World Conservation Union - http://www.iucn.org
IUCN WCPA - World Commission on Protected Areas - http://www.iucn.org/themes/wcpa/

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